What we really want to know is this: did you actually have time to watch the movie? And how many points did that lose/add??

Technical terms...technical terms...they are not swear words. How could we knit without them? It wouldn't be right. They are part of our knitese.
Glad you are back to knitting 'good' socks even with the current nightmare yarn.

At least you solved the problem. After much the same scenario with another self patterning yarn, I discovered that the second ball had a dye problem, all the dye for one stripe had dumped on a 3 inch peice, giving it a colour not in the first ball, and also now missing one stripe entirely. I did finish the second sock, and I swear to everyone that I made them this way on purpose.
You cannot knit, golf, or raise children without the technical support words. Margene is right.
Barb

Oh, your Harlotness, do not despair. Only you are keeping track of the points. This is what I fondly (or not so fondly, actually) refer to as a "fit of frustration". Glad you saw it through.

I can't tell you how many times I have had to rewind an entire ball of Fortissima because the second ball was wound in reverse of the first (did that make sense? It's early...) Now my LYS gives this warning to all customers of self-patterning sock yarn. Thank goodness for ballwinders!! *grin*

I think your points are off. You didn't wind it "wrong" the first time, you were just straightening it out so you could wind it again the other direction. Been there, done that.

What is the sock yarn? Fortissima?

Yes, but 15 points for yesterday's spinning and dying triumph! Plus five points for lesson learned: Yarn manufacturers do this with the explicit intension of trying to fool knitters in to buying MORE space dyed yarn than we need. 100 points off to the manufacturer.

score - Harlot +17 Yarn mfg -100

I don't know whether to laugh or commiserate. :)

(At least these were not self-striping _entrelac_ socks.)

I'm impressed you figured out what was going on with the sock yarn; I would probably have proceded to pull and snip off pieces of the errant ball's yarn in the hopes of finding "the" place to start, until nothing was left. I think you deserve more points for this.

As for the cussing -- I figure that in knitting, like in carpentry, you get a pass on a certain number of swear words per project. Doesn't seem like you've exceeded that limit -- or have you? (Mind boggles at the amount of cussing that would entail.)

You are SO FUNNY. That's really all I have to say.

I agree with Rana -- there shall be no point deductions for swearing. Swearing is a part of the process - and if we really thought about it, we could blame our foul mouths on our mothers - obviously they didn't raise us right. In sum, no points off for swearing - perhaps points awarded for creative swearing?

I have always wondered why I loved to knit so much when it caused me such frequent aggravation and utterances of, er, "technical terms". I am relieved that it is not something from which I suffer alone. I love self-patterning yarn and those socks are gorgeous. I gotta get some of that yarn.

I thought the swearing was a prerequisite to knitting. Doesn't the TKGA have a Master Knitter program with that section covered?

Hmmm.

Well, if we all ever meet in a crowd you'll know me by my socks that stripe differently. It is necessarily to the funkiness of brightly colored striped socks that they stripe differently. I seek out the balls that are wound different. And I'm always so disappointed that no one notices. I have to show them. Pooh, thats no fun.

Hey, Steph? My cat has taken an interest in this whole sock thing. Coulda been the ball winder. Anyway, he wants you to rip out these socks and reknit them into Lucy Neatby's Mermaid socks pattern. The Keyboard Biologist started these socks yesterday, and has posted a picture for our edification:

http://www.keyboardbiologist.net/knitblog/

Now, you might wonder why the $*#()! you should pay attention to what my cat has to say... All I can do is send you to look at him:

http://www.freewebs.com/egret/ChaosDemon.jpg

Now you all understand and have become his minions...

Not only your blog entries, but the comments also, are the funniest things in the knitting universe.

Too funny! Technical terms are sometimes a knitter's only recourse. Glad you survived.

All I can say is that you belong in stand-up. You are hilarious!

But I don't swear! (Don't have anything against it, just . . . don't.) Does this make me not a real knitter? I do say "darn" at my knitting a lot, and occasionally "frickin'" if I'm really upset. ;-)

Darn and frickin' certainly count in my book, especially if muttered in a low, grouchy undertone while glaring at the knitting responsible.

It has always been my opinion that two handknitted socks, ANY two handknitted socks, match. They may even be the product of two different knitters.
If they are handmade, they match.

Clearly, Fortissima does this winding 1/2 the balls one way and the other 1/2 another to keep us on our toes..haha...it happened to me too...it's happening everywhere in sockdom, I imagine..I, too think they gotta match!

This also happened to me with the Fun Fur-type yarn for my Muppet Scarf. I, too, was glad that if nothing else, I quickly realized what was going on and rewound the ball. I didn't have the ball winder problem though, being that, y'know, I don't have a ball winder. :)